letter-to-mom

Wooden Boat Festival, Heat Pump, Corvo mast step

A sea of masts

Good Morning and Happy Sunday!

I hope that everyone is doing well, and has had a good couple of weeks. Summer is definitely feeling like it is over here in Seattle. We have had some rain, but then also some brilliant early fall days that have just been lovely.

Heat Pump

Now that the summer is over, we have replaced the gas furnace with a heat pump, so now we can have cool air when it's hot, and warm air when it's cool out. Even though the summer is over, we have had enough warm days since the installation that the cooling has kicked in, and it's been nice to have the whole house cool when it's hot out (instead of just our bedroom, where we had a roll-in air conditioner last year and this year).

Lots of boxes coming in for the installation

Weeknight racing has come to an end

So that's a wrap for the year for weeknight racing - it's been a good year, we have become a well-oiled machine, and Corvo is in good shape. We have two more regattas before the North American Championships, and I think we are ready - there are a couple of boat projects to do to get it a little bit lighter (remove an extra battery, the autopilot that we don't use, some boards).

It's kind of strange not having the Monday and Wednesday night anchors of going out on the boat and racing, but we will get by 😄

Me, Steve, Kat, Alex and Stefan on the last weeknight race of the year.

Coffee

Wooden Boat Festival

On Friday, Sept 11th, Scott, Stefan, and I headed over to Port Townsend (thanks for driving, Scott!) for the annual Wooden Boat Festival. It was nice to take a couple of ferry rides, and then just spend a nice relaxed day at the Festival. There are so many boats that show up, and they are all so well maintained and pretty, that when you run across one that is a bit more "lived in" shall we say, it's a bit of a shock to be reminded of just how much work it is to keep a boat looking good. It is a constant battle against entropy.

Scott, Stefan and I left the car at the Coupeville side of the ferry run, and walked onto the ferry to Port Townsend

Some stunningly beautiful kayaks. I didn't want to know how much they sell for ;)

Some beautiful scrimshaw on bone, and fossilized mammoth tusk. This artist was really good.

Stefan checking out the engine on an old wooden sub hunter from WWII

Stefan really wanted me to buy this apron. It was cool - but it was a bit pricey.

We capped off the day by each getting to turn some wood on the lathe

Annual Yard Sale

On Saturday was the annual Olympic Manor garage sale, where folks are getting rid of the stuff that has accumulated in their house, and I go look for things that I didn't know existed, and now I can't live without. We had some stuff that we wanted to get rid of, but we didn't want to man a booth, so to speak, so we moved it across the street, and told Remy that he could keep 50% of what he got for any of the items. It worked out pretty well for us and him. He made some money, and now the stuff is out of the house 😄

I picked up a lodge griddle for the van's BBQ, I have to clean it up a bit, and get it good and seasoned, but it was a good deal. I also picked up another Dremel tool.

While I was wandering around the neighborhood, I noticed an engine stand sitting outside a garage, and went in and introduced myself to these guys - they are building a rally car on the same platform that our race car is on. Their car is much prettier than our car. Turns out that Brian (the guy in the middle) knows and admires my cousin Michelle. So we both sent her pictures of each other 😄

There was a nice sewing machine for sale at the garage sale, and I was going to buy it, but the local high schooler that we hire to help around the yard had his eye on it, so he picked it up. It didn't work, so he brought it over on Sunday, and we troubleshot it and got it working. Turns out the red and black wires on the pedal were swapped. It took us about two hours of working with Claude and the multimeter, but we eventually tracked it down and got it working.

Rainier Training

Victoria, Alex, and I are climbing Mt. Rainier in July of 2027, so I have started the program of getting myself trained up for that. I tried to climb Rainier when I was in my late teens or early 20's (I forget) and much more fit, and I didn't make it to the top. I tapped out at the top of Disappointment Cleaver and the group picked me up on the way down. So this time I am taking the training a bit more seriously and have got myself a program laid out to get myself in shape in time. This was the first week of the program. What I am doing this time is I have the plan laid out, and every morning, when I get up, there are instructions waiting for me for what I need to do that day. I don't question it, I just do it. And so far that is making things easier.

So Tuesday was walk down the steps to Golden Gardens and back, so I walked all the way to the beach and home.

Day Sailing

Wednesday was a beautiful day so Bec, Orca and I went for a nice little sail on Lake Union.

I'm an Eagle now

Scott and Kirk have been nagging me to join the Eagles for a while now. Back in March, I submitted my application, did my interview, and was accepted, but since the initiations only happen on Wednesdays, I was not able to go through the initiation until the sailing season was over, so this past week, I went through the initiation and am now a member of the Fraternal Order of the Eagles.

After the initiation, I hung out with my friends Victoria Leetsi and Daryoush at the Aerie. They just happened to be around, and were not necessarily there to celebrate my initiation.

Victoria works on some super fancy old big sailboats on the East Coast and in Europe.

My friend Daryoush also came by to see Victoria, since she was in town, and me. I hadn't seen Daryoush since before the pandemic.

Happy hour

Thursday night was another beautiful day, so we all headed down to the Elks Club to hang out on the deck and enjoy the beautiful sunset. While I am not a member of the Elks Club (yet? 😄) I go there somewhat often with my friends that are members.

I'm notorious for snapping pictures with people's phones if they leave them behind at the table, so Scott returned the favor. Elizabeth, Kirk, Paula and Clayton

While I was there I ran into Anne, who I used to work with at Expedia before the pandemic, I hadn't seen her in probably eight years. It was good to catch up with her.

Replacing Corvo's mast step

The mast step, where the mast sits on the keel, on Corvo has been broken for several years. Tom has had a replacement mast step rattling around. On Friday, Stefan and I decided it was time to get it replaced. This involved disconnecting all the standing rigging, using a crane to lift the mast, unbolting the old step, sliding in the new step, lowering the mast, then reconnecting the standing rigging.

This is what it looked like in the boat.

Should have lifted the mast closer to its center of gravity.

Iron Goat Trail and Rescue Rocks

Saturday night was the Rescue Rocks fundraising auction for Team Okanogan Animal Rescue (TOAR), which is the organization that works with Greater Good to run the Big Fix operations. Catherine is on the board, so she was super involved in the event. Catherine headed out there on Friday, stayed with our friends Phil and Mac in Wenatchee, and then spent the day helping get things set up. I headed over on Saturday morning, stopping at the Iron Goat Trail for a 6-mile hike along the way.